To the Black Queer Members of the Class of 2022:

On behalf of Denison’s Unfriendly Queer Black Hotties (UQBH), welcome to Denison! As first-year students enter the third week of classes, they might find themselves making new friends, trying to find their place on campus and learning more about themselves. An outlet to help with self-discovery is through a group called the Unfriendly Queer Black Hotties.

Black Queers at Denison are beautiful and dynamic, encompassing diverse nationalities, politics, cultures, sexualities, hues, languages and faiths. This diverse community of UQBH aims to sustain diversity through spreading inclusivity, respect and love to all. They encourage students to interact with the community of Black Queer students, staff, students and administration that exist on campus.

Denison continues to pose unique challenges to the Black and Queer students it admits. With ⅔ of the campus being white and even fewer Queer, being Black or Queer at Denison comes with some challenges. If students believe there are challenges on campus that need to be addressed and concern them, there is a community of Black Queers on campus they can connect with and resources available from the Office of Gender and Sexuality, UQBH programming, regular events hosted by the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Queer social organization OUTLOOK.

As the emerging Black Queer Community at Denison continues to grow in its size and presence at Dension, so too is UQBH. This year is UQBH’s inaugural academic year. Work towards progress in community organization, protest and keeping institutions accountable has a long history at Denison. It was the activated, highly political energies of Black students on campus in the late 1960s that led to Denison’s BSU and Black Studies program.

UQBH seeks to build on their work as the first and only intentionally intersectional organization on Denison’s campus through dynamic programming that centers Black Queer students’ culture, experiences and stories.

The purpose of UQBH is to make space on Denison University’s campus and abroad for Black Queer unity, celebration, advocacy and liberation. The organization moves to achieve these values by building a collective invested in Black Queer feminism, direct action, Black Queer equity and political education. They plan to host events around being Queer and Black, therefore strengthening the Black Queer Denison community. If you would like to connect with UQBH please reach out to [email protected].

 

In Solidarity,

The Unfriendly Queer Black Hotties